{"id":328885,"date":"2017-10-04T03:47:40","date_gmt":"2017-10-04T02:47:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/after-las-vegas-massacre-media-again-help-isis-terrorize\/"},"modified":"2017-10-04T03:47:40","modified_gmt":"2017-10-04T02:47:40","slug":"after-las-vegas-massacre-media-again-help-isis-terrorize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/after-las-vegas-massacre-media-again-help-isis-terrorize\/","title":{"rendered":"After Las Vegas Massacre, Media Again Help ISIS Terrorize"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_5592903\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-5592903\" src=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/NY-Post-ISIS-Las-Vegas.png\" alt=\"New York Post: ISIS claims responsibility for Las Vegas massacre\" width=\"350\" height=\"416\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>(<strong>New York Post<\/strong>, <a href=\"http:\/\/nypost.com\/2017\/10\/02\/isis-claims-responsibility-for-las-vegas-massacre\/\">10\/2\/17<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>For all their faults, corporate media, by and large, do not usually report the unverified claims of random trolls\u2014unless those trolls happen to be ISIS, or ISIS-linked media.<\/p>\n<p>In the emotionally and politically charged hours after terror attacks or other mass violence, when demagogues both in US right-wing media and within ISIS itself seek to blame Muslims to promote their shared \u201cclash of civilizations\u201d narrative, the media seem more than willing to play along and spread the specter of ISIS responsibility without any objective basis. The headlines \u00a0blared on social and online media minutes after ISIS-linked media claimed a spurious connection to the act:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Islamic State Claims Las Vegas Mass Shooting (<b>AP<\/b>, <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/a3554c3250644262af3f5b94d57b1def\">10\/2\/17<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>ISIS Has Claimed Responsibility for the Las Vegas Shooting (<b>Independent<\/b>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/world\/americas\/las-vegas-isis-shooting-claims-stephen-paddock-responsibility-latest-a7978941.html\">10\/2\/17<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>ISIS Claims Responsibility for Las Vegas Massacre (<b>New York Post,<\/b> <a href=\"http:\/\/nypost.com\/2017\/10\/02\/isis-claims-responsibility-for-las-vegas-massacre\/\">10\/2\/17<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>ISIS Claims Las Vegas Shooting, Says Stephen Paddock Converted to Islam (<b>Newsweek,<\/b> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/isis-claims-las-vegas-shooting-says-stephen-paddock-converted-islam-675504\">10\/2\/17<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>ISIS Has Claimed Responsibility for the Shooting, Saying Paddock Converted to Islam \u2018Months Ago\u2019 (<b>Business Insider<\/b>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/businessinsider\/status\/914868453730869248\">10\/2\/17<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>ISIS Claims Responsibility for Las Vegas Shooting (<b>Time<\/b>, <a href=\"http:\/\/time.com\/4965449\/isis-las-vegas-shooter-stephen-paddock\/\">10\/2\/17<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"attachment_5592904\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-5592904\" src=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Newsweek-ISIS-Las-Vegas.png\" alt=\"Newsweek: ISIS Claims Las Vegas Shooting, Says Stephen Paddock Converted to Islam\" width=\"350\" height=\"340\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>(<strong>Newsweek<\/strong>, <a href=\"http:\/\/time.com\/4965449\/isis-las-vegas-shooter-stephen-paddock\/\">10\/2\/17<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>As FAIR has often noted, only 40 percent of people <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/the-fix\/wp\/2014\/03\/19\/americans-read-headlines-and-not-much-else\/\">read past the headlines<\/a>, which means 60 percent of US media consumers get their news from how a story is framed rather than what the actual text says. While some, such as <b>CBS<\/b> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/las-vegas-shooting-isis-claim-no-proof-stephen-paddock-linked-terror-group\/\">10\/2\/17<\/a>), noted in their initial frame that ISIS made the claim with \u201cno proof\u201d or \u201coffering no evidence,\u201d while others (like <b>AP<\/b> and <b>Time<\/b>) later added additional skepticism, one is still compelled to ask: Of what news value is repeating unsubstantiated claims at all?<\/p>\n<p>Doubly so after a string of fake ISIS claims in recent months. \u00a0As <b>CNN<\/b> analyst Paul Cruickshank <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CruickshankPaul\/status\/914859285405978629\">noted <\/a>on social media, ISIS claimed responsibility in June for an attack on a casino that authorities insist was a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.torontosun.com\/2017\/06\/02\/isis-claims-responsibility-for-philippines-casino-attack-police-say-it-was-robbery-gone-wrong\">robbery gone bad<\/a>, and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/news\/world-news\/isis-claim-charles-de-gaulle-11221466\">evacuation<\/a> of Paris\u2019s Charles de Gaulle Airport in September, which turned out to be caused by verbal threats \u201cfrom a female passenger in her 50s\u201d after she was denied a seat on a plane.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt seems like they&#8217;re desperate for attention and will claim just about everything,&#8221; \u00a0Colin Clarke, a political scientist and terrorism expert for the Rand think tank, told <b>CNBC<\/b> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2017\/10\/02\/isis-claim-of-paddocks-link-is-a-sign-of-terror-groups-desperation.html\">10\/2\/17<\/a>) after ISIS claimed the Las Vegas attack. &#8220;They&#8217;ve lost so much territory, and they fear they&#8217;re becoming irrelevant.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And right on cue, several major outlets were there to make them relevant again. As FAIR (<a href=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/home\/stop-feeding-the-troll-the-case-for-an-isis-propaganda-blackout\/\">5\/26\/15<\/a>) has noted, corporate US media are by far ISIS\u2019s largest recruiting platform\u2014playing their grisly videos on loop for years, mindlessly echoing their every threat, and hyping their status as an existential threat far beyond any objective purchase.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5592905\" style=\"width: 361px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-5592905\" src=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Wayne-Allyn-Root.jpg\" alt=\"Wayne Allyn Root mass shooting tweets. \" width=\"351\" height=\"273\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em><strong>Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/strong> columnist spreads Islamophobic disinformation during mass shooting. (screenshot: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nycsouthpaw\/status\/914759574623793153\">@nycsouthpaw<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The grossest example of this \u201cclash of civilizations\u201d narrative, eagerly promoted by both ISIS and the far right, was <b>Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/b> columnist Wayne Allyn Root, a former Libertarian Party VP nominee and radio show host, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/the-fix\/wp\/2017\/10\/02\/columnist-for-sheldon-adelsons-las-vegas-newspaper-blames-muslim-terror-for-shooting\/?tid=sm_fb_pol&amp;utm_term=.183079826483\">who insisted<\/a> all Monday night and into the morning, without providing a speck of evidence, that the killer was part of a team acting on behalf of ISIS. \u201cThis is real thing. Clearly coordinated Muslim terror attack. PRAY for our Vegas police. PRAY for victims. VERY bad. Awful,\u201d he told his 110,000 followers.<\/p>\n<p>High-profile alt-right personality Laura Loomer followed suit, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LauraLoomer\/status\/914816963578384384\">insisting<\/a>, even after the killer&#8217;s identity was revealed, that there was \u201cstill a connection to Islam\u201d\u2014whatever that means.<\/p>\n<p>The combination of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/articles\/news_and_politics\/moment\/2017\/07\/sheldon_adelson_wants_the_las_vegas_review_journal_to_be_an_israel_hayom.html\">billionaire-funded<\/a> far-right media and a credulous corporate press, willing to repeat anonymous, evidence-free claims by ISIS outlets, creates a perfect storm of media manipulation. Given a constellation of elements invested in promoting any mass violence as an ISIS operation, perhaps next time the media could hold out for actual proof before echoing claims that prop up this destructive narrative.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"et_bloom_bottom_trigger\"><\/span><br \/>\nThis piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission from <a href=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/home\/after-las-vegas-massacre-media-again-help-isis-terrorize\/\">FAIR<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(New York Post, 10\/2\/17) For all their faults, corporate media, by and large, do not usually report the unverified claims of random trolls\u2014unless those trolls happen to be ISIS, or ISIS-linked media. In the emotionally and politically charged hours after terror attacks or other mass violence, when demagogues both in US right-wing media and within [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2521,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-328885","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328885\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}